WT receives honors at TIPA conference

West Texas A&M University mass communication students won 20 awards at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association’s recent annual conference.

Assistant professor of communication Butler Cain won TIPA Adviser of the Year, a first for WT in more than 30 years.

“Students are still talking about what they learned and want to accomplish working in the student and professional media after this conference,” Cain said. “We were thrilled with their enthusiasm and professionalism in competition, sessions and the awards ceremony. I feel certain their experiences will help prepare them for important roles in journalism.”

At the on-site portion of the conference April 11 and 12 in San Antonio, Tori Stone earned honorable mention for magazine design, Tori Dinkfeld earned honorable mention for television writing and Alyssa Bonner earned honorable mention for PR news release writing.

For their work in 2013, the staffs of The Prairie, WT’s student newspaper, Eternal Flame magazine and student radio station KWTS-91.1 earned 20 certificates — the most ever won by WT’s mass communication students at TIPA. Eternal Flame won overall excellence for general magazine.